A11- “Role of Traditional Games in Closing Generation Gap”-research study

RESPONSIBLE PARTNER(S): France
DEADLINE: 23 DECEMBER 2016
OBJECTIVE: The objectives of this study are:
– To search the role of the traditional games in closing the generation gap between oldest and youngest living generations.
– To develop the skills and competence for conducting collective research, compilation, analysis and conclusion deriving skills and qualifications among the partners to facilitate development of the Intellectual Outputs of the Project,
– To determine existing and possible means for closing the gap between the generations
PROCEDURE:
1) The coordinators of the Partner countries shall perform a literature scan under the guidance of Responsible Partner (France) to check availability of any material (book, article, etc.) dealing with the means and methodologies used/advised/suggested for closing the gap between the generations.
2) The literature scanning shall be done in project language (English). Project coordinator of each partner school shall inform the coordinator of the Responsible Partner (France) and other project coordinators when he/she finds a relevant material to avoid duplicate effort by the other project coordinators.
2) The Responsible Coordinator shall analyse the materials together with the Project Coordinator to see whether they can be used to explore possible roles of traditional games in closing the gap between the old and young generations.
3) If the Project Coordinator is not satisfied with the quality of the materials found or if it is seen that the materials do not represent all aspects of the issue being analysed, Project Coordinator may ask assistance from the resource people of the stakeholders involved in the Project.
4) The research activity shall be created in an article format in project language and the partner schools shall try to reach local/ regional/national media and press and/or journals/ magazines for publication of the article.

ERASMUS +PROJECT
BRIDGING THREE GENERATIONS: TIMELESS GAMES AND TOYS

A11 Collective research study on
“The Role of Traditional Games in Closing Generation Gap”
Country
Links to sources ,bibliography on means and methodologies used or suggested for closing the gap between generations

A11-Collective research study on “The Role of Traditional Games in Closing Generation Gap.
Made by French Team.

This paper is an attempt to present briefly findings from press and scientific releases that inquire into the topics of bridging a gap among generations and the benefits of traditional games in the improvement of intergenerational communication. The sources used for this article were proposed by 8 partner countries working together on an Erasmus + KA2 project “Bridging Three Generations: Timeless Games and Toys”.
Do you think your child’s or grandchild’s clothes are too weird and their hairstyle out of space, their music is too loud? What is more, do you find that although they’re speaking English, you can’t understand a word? If your answers are positive, you might be on the wrong side of a generation gap.
The experience of a generation gap or else, a generational divide, when you realize that your philosophies and values are so different from those of the younger crowd, that communication becomes difficult is not a recent phenomenon. In the USA already in the 60s grown-ups talked a great deal about the generation gap. It meant the old and the young didn’t understand each other very well, they couldn’t communicate.[1] What underlies this communication problem? The fact that times have changed greatly, grandparents, parents and children grew up, their views, values and personalities were forged in different historical and socio-economical contexts. Let us have a look at the sets of characteristics that describe different generations.
If you are a grandparent you probably belong to the generation of traditionalists. Traditionalists were born before 1945, the epoque defined by the war effort in a greater part of the world. They are hardworking and patient rule followers, practical, loyal and respectful of authority. This generation don’t instantly share their thoughts – they take their time in developing relationships based on trust and their word is their bond. They like formality whether in oral or written form. They have a high work ethic, which doesn’t include having fun at work. [1]
The next generation, the so-called Baby Boomers were born in between 1946-1960. Their traditionalists parents, many of whom had suffered from deprivations during the war, gave their children the very best they could give and consequently boomers grew up more self-centered and developed the importance of “me”. The years that formed them were those of social upheaval (1960s) and they were the first group to feel a shift in family values. Their parents worked for the benefit of their company, whereas the boomers work for their proper individual benefit. It was boomers, who started the workaholic trend in order to be successful and to get promoted to the next level in their careers. Boomers don’t like the rules and tend to challenge the system. They are very competitive and will fight for a cause. They like to be shown recognition. [1]
The generation that follows Baby Boomers is referred to as Generation X. Most researchers and demographers start this generation in the early 1960s and end it in the early 80s. Generation X is characterized as economically conservative, they are often seen as disloyal to companies, not trusting on institutions for their security. They have an entrepreneurial spirit and often move from company to company. They work out their problems by themselves rather than rely on management. This generation works hard, but they value their time off and keep a balance between work and leisure. They prefer to manage their time on their own and hate wasting it on unnecessary meetings. They seek and value information as well as feedback and flexibility. Generation X give preference to an informal atmosphere and like their fun. [1]

The generation of our young adults and older teenagers or else Millennials or Generation Y or Nexters (from 1981 to early 2000s) from the point of view of older grown-ups just don’t get it, they want it all, but they don’t want to work for it. All they do is text and play video games. This group has grown up in a high-tech world and they know no other. They are exposed to more diversity than earlier generations through technology, which they value highly as a tool for multitasking and which is often integrated in everything they do. Millenials are more optimistic about the future than their parents, they like to make and spend money. They don’t like to be looked down on. You’d better not take yourself too seriously and use humour when dealing with them. [1]

The youngest generation (teenagers and kids), referred to as Generation Z still has to define itself and no one knows for sure yet how this generation is going to act. It already makes up almost one-quarter of the U.S. population. As a cohort, Gen Z is already the same size as Millennials and Boomers and has surpassed Gen X. [2]

Who is Gen Z? First and foremost, they are young people who are growing up digitally, they have never known a world without the Internet. They’re being permanently tuned in or socially connected, for Gen Z, there is almost no separation between online and real life [2], they are being constantly exposed to all sorts of different news in which they instantly lose interest and pas onto the next thing. Technology is central to every aspect of their lives, from socializing to schoolwork, entertainment to exercise, relaxation to reference. With so much knowledge at their fingertips, there is no excuse not to know something. This power allows them to fact-check instantaneously when they question something. Teens turn to their online social communities for advice and information. This allows them to find more answers but also means that there are no or few authorities. [2]

Alongside being fully integrated in technology, diversity is the new normal for Gen Z. Gen Z is likely to be more comfortable and familiar with different cultures, races and ethnicities than previous generation. [2]

As you may conclude from the above said, a lot of problems of communication arise among people of different generations due to sometimes significant divides between their values, philosophies and attitudes. But what Croatian researchers, children’s psychologists’ and pedagogues Tatjana Kovačević and Siniša Opić warn us about is the latest generation’s communication problems with their peers. The latter problem can be explained by the fact that peers spend less time in joint activities. They lack a feeling of togetherness. They maintain that poor socialization results in difficulties in child’s learning and behavior. [3]

How do we deal with difficulties in communication? There isn’t a myriad of solutions. We must learn to communicate better and accept that there are and there will always be differences in values of different generations. We have no choice because we are a product of the times we grew up and live in. We must also acquire skills of socialization and observe rules of behaviour to get along with our peers as well. Are there any efficient methods and tools to help us repair our faulty communication? Shortly we are going to see that the tools are many and they have been around since the dawn of time, undeservedly falling into oblivion for the last few decades.
The attitude is important in our efforts to become better communicators with our children and grandchildren. Ourdailylives.com gives us some tips to follow once we have made up our mind to make an honest effort to cross the distance that separates our generations, not compare our glory years with the present, but get to know our young ones and appreciate them for who they are. The past wasn’t better; it was just different. We’d better accept that things are the way they are and try to understand the changes. [4]
We are reminded that communicating regularly with our children can go a long way toward bridging the generation gap, especially if we learn to listen better. With teens communication may become really difficult, therefore it’s important to choose the right moment in their routine, which is often quite intensely punctuated with school work and afterschool activities. Therefore we should find out when they are more open and relaxed, maybe during a drive to school, maybe at weekends [4], round a dinner table or a board game with the whole family.
It’s important to let kids know that their interests are our interests, regardless of the number of decades between us, that we’re always available to talk, and no subject is off limits, and even if we don’t agree with what they’re saying, we should try to listen more than speak. But when we speak we’re going to have to speak their language, if we want to close the gap between us. It means keeping ourselves up-to-date what regards the trends that define your kids’ generation, from slang, music, movies, and clothes to social networking and current events. [4]
Our willingness to bridge the generation gap will be tested by our openness to change. We must be flexible in our ideas and actions to keep up with our child’s swift moving current.
What could be the most suitable setting for intergenerational (and intragenerational) communication that would help create a relaxed atmosphere, where every participant’s barriers are kept low enabling them to be open and as well-disposed – a prerequisite for quality time together? The answer seems to be a very simple one – it’s a game situation. We don’t mean a solitary game with an electronic gadget, but a traditional game that gathers players together, makes them interact and, apart from providing a series of benefits that we’ll be shortly looking into, gives feeling of pleasure and satisfaction. ………………..
Traditional games are the games our grandparents played when they were children. The props they used were very simple and modest, taken from natural surroundings, but children used imaginative solutions, played freely and had fun. Even though they had quite a lot of obligations, children found time and place to play. [3] Today the situation looks grim.
Croatian researchers and pedagogues, who studied the impact of traditional games on children’s socialization, deplore the fact that our grandparents’ games are being poorly passed to the children of modern generation. The factors to blame are the influence of consumer society, growing alienation, the changes that occurred in rural life with to the progress of technology and spreading settlements. As the result and many games disappeared. [3]
As for the urban environment, due to the issues of safety and lack of space for games, what were once child-initiated games and pick-up sports are now either adult managed or supervised activities. Parents are taking control of make-believe play as well. American anthropologists D.F. Lancy and A. Grove explain this recent change in the way parents behave as arising from their attempt to fill in for the siblings and peers their increasingly isolated children do not have, especially in urban settings. Parents also seem to feel that a child’s unguided play will not yield the kind of results educationally that parent-directed play yields. And, importantly, parents fear their offspring may suffer physical or psychological harm if they play with kids their own age. Parents, for example, sometimes view marbles as dangerous because a child might swallow and choke on one. Despite such worries and intentions, curtailing play initiated by children seems likely to decrease opportunities to develop the skills associated with gamesmanship. The authors review several case studies of children engaged in rule-governed play and conclude that the process of learning rules—and of breaking them and making new ones—promotes what they call gamesmanship. They link the development of gamesmanship to the theory of Machiavellian intelligence, which considers social interaction primary in the evolution of human intelligence. [5]
Video games are a major factor in the decline of free play of children as well. Recent surveys indicate that children under six years old engage with video (film, television, electronic games) for several hours a day. No comparable survey of involvement with face-to-face, unsupervised, group game play is available, but the American researchers assume that the time allotted has declined—to zero in many cases. The problem with electronic forms of entertainment for young children is twofold. One, they usually play solo or with limited interaction; and, two, the rules cannot be easily altered. In short, traditional games and make-believe play seem to be less and less a part of modern childhood because adult-supervised recreation and play with socially isolating media have replaced the more fertile grounds for play—recess, neighbourhood play groups, and large families. [5]
Looking for solutions is not an easy task for today’s parents, schools, and municipal authorities, who must now deal with school-aged children as they spend less time in unsupervised free play with peers. These kids may lack the social skills they need to engage in rule-governed play and to sustain game play successfully. Some schools severely curtail recess because more bullying may happen than play. Instead of working out issues themselves during free play outside, children are micromanaged by parents who step in to resolve conflicts for them.” [5]
Croatian pedagogues and researchers T. Kovačević and S. Opić emphasize that play is key to the children’s acquisition of social skills and realizing relations within a certain group. [3] Lack of these skills is one of the reasons why intergenerational or intragenerational communication becomes difficult. Communication between people is extremely important today. The lack of it is felt amongst children. These games help to maintain better relations within others, and give the opportunity to teach tolerance, togetherness and respect of the rules. The researchers explain that a child makes its first social contacts by playing with other children, goes through positive and negative experiences similar to those in real life. A child learns to deal with positive and negative emotions created in interaction with others. Play gives possibilities to learn social roles and acquiring behavioural norms. Through play kids learn about themselves and others, get to know the values which they will encounter throughout life. They must learn to accept the standpoints of others and to respect the opinions of others. Through play a child develops and progresses in communication with others and hence gets prepared for life in society. A child who spends enough time at play with other children is ready for serious tasks that await them in the future. They take school obligations more readily and more prepared, and then other tasks at an adult age. [3]
In their two-month research the Croatian authors examined the contribution of traditional games to the quality of pupils’ relations and to the frequency of pupils’ socializations in primary education. They determined that 76% before and 85% of the pupils after the implementation of traditional games assessed the relations with other students as good, pupils’ socializing after classes was more frequent rising from 36% before to reach 51% of students after implementation of traditional games. The pedagogues recommend to integrate play in the teaching process not only in primary school but also in higher grades, for example in workshops with the goal of improving children’s communication skills and nonviolent conflict resolution – skills that are key to all communication, whatever generation be involved in it. Apart from the latter, the benefits of traditional games the authors of this study bring out are numerous. Games may present a solution in dealing with the problem of our youth’s lack of respect and authority – at play children must acquire rules of behavior which apply during play and stick to them. Play helps a child to revive the sense of belonging to a certain group, process real life experiences and, in such a way, realize oneself, release emotional tension and motivate child’s imagination and creativity, enables to examine the world around and develop bodily abilities, to stimulate cognitive growth in a child and prepare for abstract thinking. [3] Traditional games give huge possibilities for teachers, parents and children, so it is necessary to protect them from oblivion.
How can we help our isolated, overprotected and micromanaged kids get enough play? There is hope the American researchers believe. Some school districts and municipalities hire playground or recess coaches “who hope to show children that there is good old-fashioned fun to be had without iPods and video games and who’ll help students learn to settle petty disputes. “Tools for the Mind,” an innovative preschool program uses play to train children to control their impulsivity. Social critics warn parents to allow children greater freedom, particularly in play. [5]
As evidence that further decline is not inevitable, consider that recently at the Horsham Primary School in western Victoria, Australia, March was declared Marbles Month. The game, school officials promised, would be vigorously promoted. Of late, there is a renewed interest in the board games that had been replaced by modern gadgets and plastic toys. There are many efforts and working towards reviving the tradition worldwide.
As an example we can quote UNICEF-supported project aimed at preserving local culture and stimulating learning in an area where educational equipment is thin on the ground and most children drop out before finishing secondary school. In the classrooms of rural Baan Pa Daet School, in the mountainous Chiang Rai province of Thailand among the textbooks and slide-rules, you’ll find bamboo snakes that grip fingers like iron, hollow tubes that make noises like local birds, and a spinning block of wood that emits a mournful wail to scare off ghosts. All these objects are traditional toys. The school-children are taught to make them by their grandparents and teachers are also using them to explain basic laws of physics, since many of the toys are perfect illustrations of the scientific principles behind vacuums, sound vibration and other natural phenomena. When children can see physical laws in action, they are better able to comprehend them in theory. [7]
Just as importantly, the project is bringing grandparents and grandchildren together in a way that has not been seen for a generation. Because of traditional games being ousted by new forms of entertainment, a gap opened up between the generations – young people preferred the company of video games and the elderly would sit at home doing nothing. Pupils involved in the UNICEF-supported project pointed out that now, thanks to this initiative they have become closer to their grandparents and they love them more. The project has brought more unity and warmth to their village because now the pupils spend time with their grandparents almost everyday. [7] Connecting with members of older generations is an important segment in preserving traditional games, because the elderly pass their knowledge and experience to children and as long as local knowledge is not allowed to disappear such projects can expand and go on forever.

Another such initiative to bring traditional games back from oblivion is an initiative in India by Shreeranjini G.S. to create awareness about traditional board games such as huli-kuri aata and chowkabara among children and adults, give them a contemporary touch before exposing them to the current generation, whom we see too often engrossed in video games.

Shreeranjini had noticed that many adults do not play these board-based games as they think the games are meant for children. Shreeranjini disagrees, she believes the games are for all age groups. Traditional board games have the ability to bring together different generations and allow them to connect with each other. [6]

A recent Scottish intergenerational project “Games for ALL” that was run by Generations Working Together and lasted four months was aimed at bringing younger and older people together to share experiences of toys and games from childhood, no matter whether that childhood was from the previous year or the previous century. Using this common ground the individuals learnt to appreciate the different points of view of a different generation.

In this project meetings were held involving 10 older people aged 75 + (some had mild dementia) from a care home and 6 pupils, 15 years of age. Activities during meeting sessions included: musical bingo (ending in a singsong) dominos, cards, floor darts, spelling and arithmetic quizzes, skittles and the ‘talking’ ball. Time was always allocated for tea, cakes and a chat.

Project manager G. Cassidy notes that the project was beneficial for both parties involved. The major benefits for the young were increased confidence, better communication skills, improved attention span and a gained a sense of responsibility (attendance was higher than at school) as well as more respect for older people. This project even provided a career path for some pupils.

Whereas the elderly benefitted in increased well-being, reduced isolation and improved relationships with young people. Meeting sessions gave them something to look forward to each week, they had an opportunity to have fun and were observed to be less dependent on care staff. [8]
The encouraging news for the researchers, scientists and teachers trying to keep traditional games alive is that there seems to be an increasing demand among modern kids for games played with family. Barclaycard, one of the leading Europe’s paying businesses carried out a research on children’s playing habits and found that despite the growth in video games two-thirds of British children (67%) say they would like to learn how to play traditional games, such as chess, draughts and cards with their families with the figure increasing to seven in ten (71 per cent) for single-child families. This comes as welcome news to parents who believe the latest apps and computer games are intruding on family time and affecting their children’s development. Maybe the era of children playing computer games alone in their bedrooms is be coming to an end? [9] [11]
What regards time spent together with one’s family, almost half (43%) of children say they do not spend enough time playing games with their family, rising to over half (52%) amongst the youngest child in families, and they are not alone. Their feeling is corroborated by parents’ answers – a fifth of parents (21%) feel that modern playing habits have led to the family spending less time together as children’s computer gaming has doubled in a generation, more than half (54 per cent) parents feel they do not spend enough time playing games together. [9] [11]
“In today’s world, where many parents fear that they’re spending less time with their children, there is no better way to bring the family together than to gather round a board game or a pack of cards. Sometimes, the old ways are the best, and some of the more traditional games still have a place in children’s lives today. Barclaycard Europe is one of the key players in the UK in the promotion of the game of chess in partnership with the charity, Chess in Schools and Communities. Their aim is to promote the development of essential skills in young people through chess mentoring, learning and playing, and tournaments. Chess in particular has been shown to improve children’s numeracy and problem-solving skills as well as overall educational outcomes, which is why they’ve been so passionate at Barclaycard to help bring it into schools This initiative called Yes2Chess started in 2014 and here are some figures to illustrate its spectacular success: in 2014 40,000 primary school-aged children, across 8 countries, benefited; 1,300 teams signed up; 400 schools participated; 443 Yes2Chess volunteers gave their time. [10] [11]
David Chan, CEO of Barclaycard Europe, said: “One of the best strategies for keeping children’s play balanced is by ensuring that family time is available as an attractive alternative to today’s electronic devices. This can be as simple as preparing and eating meals together, go to organised outings and social events. In doing this, adults demonstrate by their own behaviour that it is possible to enjoy and participate in new technology as well as non-virtual pursuits such as physical, social and creative activities.” [11]

The UK is not only home to noble initiatives to bring back play time with family into British homes, but also a hub of extensive state funded programmes that are strategically committed to developing and embedding intergenerational practice locally. One such is the so-called Generations Together programme aiming to improve individual’s attitudes and behaviours towards other generations. Generations Together demonstrator projects of intergenerational practice were launched in July 2009, across 12 local authorities in England.

The design of the Generations Together programme across the 12 local authorities was varied depending on the local context: local strategic and policy priorities, for example, this may have been contributing to community cohesion or increasing volunteering opportunities and the number of volunteers locally, on the experience and local knowledge of partners.

The purpose of the Generations Together programme was to:
•generate wider interest in and thinking about intergenerational work;
•increase the number of volunteers working on intergenerational activity by 20,000 by the end of the programme;
•encourage a more strategic and sustainable approach to undertaking intergenerational work;
•provide robust evidence of the effectiveness of intergenerational initiatives;
•develop evidence about which models are most effective in delivering which outcomes, for which groups of people, in which situations.

Intergenerational projects, 90 in total, often had an education and learning theme, other common themes included health and well-being, and community and democracy, sport and leisure. Playing was part of the activities, with sessions of playing chess, table tennis, badminton, Boccia; play of word, memory or board games, and electronic games, such as The Game of Life and Nintendo Wii, use and play on Wii sports. Projects were most commonly reported to last between 13-18 months.

The Generations Together projects have been successful at engaging at least 2,613 new volunteers (within the total of about 11,000 volunteers) into volunteering opportunities, 12,000 recipients and 8,743 wider participants. The number of younger people taking part in Generations Together activities is greater than that of older people. Over half of participants are aged 25 and under and over two-fifths were aged 50 or over. This reflects the multigenerational nature of Generations Together activity in some projects. The average age of younger participants is 14 and the average age of the older participants is 68. 12% participants were reported to have a disability.

Generations Together has had success in delivering a range of benefits and outcomes for participants, the most frequent include:
•personal development e.g. communication and organisational skills, working with others, increased confidence/self-esteem;
•skills development e.g. use of IT, gardening, film and photography, fashion, cooking, mentoring and other ways of supporting others, dance, arts and crafts, drama and singing, radio, and work experience and related skills;
•improvements in views/perceptions of younger and older people; improved understanding of generations; greater interaction between generations;
•increased participation e.g. engagement in volunteering opportunities, engagement in positive activities, local community, greater satisfaction with home and neighbourhood; developing a healthier lifestyle, reduction in fear of crime and risky behaviour.

Personal development is a key outcome of Generations Together activity with:
•2,147 individuals having improved their ability to make a positive contribution to their community;
•1,839 individuals report improved self-esteem.

Generations Together Programme evaluation report cites a couple of comments that give a personal perception of participants in a project in Plymouth that supported the Kurdish Community in their Newros celebrations (Kurdish New Year). These comments are no less eloquent about the success of this initiative than the above-presented facts and figures:
“I engaged with a vast amount of people from older generations and reduced the sense of isolation I felt towards their generation. We shared a lot of stories and found a common ground for sharing past events and personal values.”
“I was surprised by the amount of people who wanted to come and celebrate the Kurdish New Year with us – I felt proud that people wanted to learn more about our culture and this made me feel more at home in this city of Plymouth.” [12]
The following quotes come from a young and an older participants’ comments on their experience in a technological knowledge sharing project in Northampton:
“I didn’t think older people were interested in learning about mobiles, laptops and games like the Wii. I guess they are – one guy asked me to show him how he could play games on his mobile.” (Young person)
“I felt so stupid coming here today, because all the youngsters can do this sort of stuff so easily, but no-one has made me feel stupid. There’s a great atmosphere here today.” (Older person)